Day 3am: Sainz eases off

After Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm's retirement late Saturday evening, Sainz has eased off the throttle as he aims to simply bring his car home and take a record-breaking 26th career victory.

Loeb took the first stage of the day ahead of Peugeot's remaining driver Harri Rovanpera while Subaru's sole effort Mikko Hirvonen set the third quickest time.

Sainz extended his lead on Loeb in SS23 by a further 3s, the second quickest time of the test. Fastest man on the route was Rovanpera, who took his third stage win of the rally.

The Finn tried to repeat the feat in the final stage of the morning (SS24) but missed out to Hirvonen by 5.6s. Loeb was third quickest but failed to make any huge inroads into his team-mate's lead.

Ford's Francois Duval, who is taking charge of the Blue Oval's efforts following team-mate Markko Martin's huge roll on Friday, is third overall with Loeb in his sights just 3.57s down on the Frenchman.

The Belgian now just has to keep his car on the road as fourth-placed Hirvonen is over four minutes down on Duval. Rovanpera is a further 10 minutes down on the Subaru driver.

Luis Companc Perez is sixth overall in the Peugeot 206 while Gilles Panizzi is flying the flag for Mitsubishi in seventh. Gabriel Pozzo rounds out the top eight in the Subaru Impreza Sti.